As the capabilities and processing power of mobile terminals continues to grow, mobile terminals are increasingly used for a multitude of services previously reserved for larger and less mobile devices. One such service may include gesture recognition based on a captured image and/or video. However due to complex imaging conditions and high integration of cameras in mobile terminals, challenges exist in timely processing data and ultimately finger segmentation and tracking. For example, a fingertip is a small and in a generally shadowed target region with low image contrast and additionally there exists the possibility for excessive image noise. Further a mobile terminal's form factor may not be configured with a high powered infrared light emitting diode and a high powered camera.